I grew up on the coast of Washington and surf sailed in an area called Leadbetter Point, which is approximately 4 square mile area of breaking surf. Therefore, I had a lot of practice in the surf and in an ideal area for cat surfing. I sailed my H14 there and the H16, and to be honest no cat sails as well as these boats in the surf. The Wave reminds me of sailing a box through the surf, just not a good boat in the surf. Let me emphasize the Wave is easier to sail with the waves (obviously) than punching out through them as it will almost feel like you are going backwards, so you need a good amount of wind to get out through the waves depending on their size no matter what technique you use to try to make the Wave behave better in the surf. I think it would be fun in 2-3' surf like someone mentioned but definitely not in bigger surf, actually it may even be unsafe in larger surf (like surf sailing is safe). A friend of mine just got back from Hawaii as an employee of a sailboat rental business and told me that the Wave is just horrible to sail through the surf. So, if you want to go for a sail on a Wave just get out and back through the surf as quickly as possible by timing the waves, etc. The Wave is just not a great surf cat, like almost all symmetrical hulled cats. This is just an area that is not the Waves talent. I have also sailed the Pacific Cat, Prindle 18, TheMightyHobie18 and 21 in the surf. The 21 was not good in the surf, the 18 was ok, the Prindle 18 was slightly better, and the Pacific Cat buried them all but still not as good as the 16. Sorry probably gave more info than you wanted. It will be interesting to see how the new Hobie Bravo sails in the surf, it is definitely more response than the Wave, which is a good characteristic to have in the surf (come to the 2003 Hobie Bravo Nationals on beautiful Lake Coeur d' Alene, should be a lot of fun - more info coming - Aug 2003).